Runaways
by silvercage
Summary: [On hold] When the Kazekage orders the assassination of six year old Gaara, Temari takes her brothers and runs.
1. Chapter 1

**Runaways**

A Temari Story

Chapter One

Nine year old Temari was "playing" outside her father's office, despite the thousand times she had been told not to. She was standing on the ledge that ran around the two storey building just under the upper window. She gently lifted up the framed glass and placed a pebble in the crack to keep it open. Shuffling over a little to stay out of sight, Temari had to press herself flat against the wall and turn her feet outwards to keep them on the shelf. If she got much bigger, she would have to find a new way to spy on the Kazekage.

The door of the office swung open and two men shuffled in.

"But Kazekage-sama," one of the men was saying, "Surely you will reconsider. The boy is invaluable, he could single-handedly fight a war for this country. He is only six years old and already—"

"He is only six years old, and already he could fight a war _against_ this country," Temari heard her father's crisp reply, "He will only get stronger. My word is final, my orders will be obeyed. Send out the jounin as soon as they are ready. I want him dead by sunset."

Temari drew a sharp breath. "Gaara," she whispered.

"Did you hear something?" the first man asked. The window was flung open and a head craned out. Nothing was there.

* * *

Temari raced home as fast as she could. She flew through the door and up the stairs, into her youngest brother's room.

"Gaara?" she called, "Gaara, where are you?" She began to frantically search his room. There wasn't anyway the jounin could have already been dispatched, was there? "Gaara!" she screamed.

"What?" came the voice of an irritated six year old who had just stepped out of his other room, his arms crossed over his chest. Kankuro was behind him.

Temari suppressed a sigh of relief. "Get your travelling bags," Temari said quickly, "Put some clothes in them and any weapons you have. Don't bring any toys."

"Why?" Gaara asked calmly.

"Just, please, do it," Temari's voice was shaking, "I'll be back in five minutes; be ready." Temari hurried to her room and began shoving things in her own canvas bag. Her entire body was trembling with fear; the jounin would be showing up any minute now. The girl reached under her bed and pulled out a small box. It was stuffed with small bills and coins that she had been saving for years. They would need every penny of it to buy food; they couldn't risk being seen taking a great deal of food from the kitchen. Temari buckled her bag shut and slung it over her shoulder. She hurried back to Gaara's room and found him and Kankuro standing in the hall waiting for her. Gaara didn't have a bag.

"Where are we going Temari?" Kankuro asked grumpily.

"Just for a little trip," Temari lied, trying to sound like it was a normal occurrence for three children to go on vacations on their own. She took her brothers' hands and pulled them down the hall to the large window. She pulled it open and began to scale down the cracked surface of the rough wall. Gaara and Kankuro didn't follow. Temari had to go back up and poke her head over the ledge. "Come on," she hissed.

The three siblings landed in the wide alley between their house and the next one. Despite their father being the most prominent ninja in the country, they still lived in a normal house with a few servants in the kitchen. Temari led her brothers down the shadowy backstreets of Suna cautiously peering around corners and shooting glances over their shoulders.

After sneaking around for fifteen minutes, the three children reached the market. Temari made her brothers hide behind some garbage cans and told them not to leave that spot until she returned.

"But Temari," Kankuro whined, "It smells back here."

"I'll be back in a minute," Temari said, checking to make sure nobody was looking their way. "Look after Gaara," she told Kankuro.

Temari stepped out from the narrow alley into the wide street. She went to a stall and bought four loaves of bread and some dried fruit. At another stall she paid for some blankets and three large canteens, which she filled at the well in the middle of the market. She was shooting glances every which way; the jounin would be out looking for Gaara by now, and she had to protect him. As much as she wanted to run away as fast as she could, she knew she had to look calm; those who rushed were noticed. The blonde made her way back to the garbage cans and handed each boy their canteens.

They crept silently to the village walls and slipped through the gate.

* * *

"Run!" Temari yelled. The city had just disappeared over the horizon when four jounin spotted them. Temari and Kankuro were tearing across the sand, but Gaara was lagging behind. Temari looked over her shoulder and saw one of the ninja's catapult over the boy and land in front of him, a kunai in his hand. Temari stopped and pulled out two shuriken and threw them at the man, who easily dodged them. They were headed towards Gaara but his sand shield flew up.

"Gaara, get down!" Temari shrieked, snapping her fan open. The boy looked from his sister's panic stricken face to the four jounin who were all in battle stances.

"Give us the kid and we'll let you go," one of them called. Temari clenched her teeth and dug her feet into the ground in front of her brother. Seeing that she wasn't about to budge willingly, the team unsheathed their weapons. Before any move could be made, a slithering sound hissed out from behind the girl. Temari turned her head a fraction to look back and saw sand seeping out of the gourd on her brother's back. Gaara had a look of madness in his cold green eyes. The sand suddenly sprang off of the ground and smothered the ninjas. They had no time to scream. Temari looked at the place where the jounin had stood, horror evident in her eyes as the blood poured down like rain. She looked back at her brother, splattered with blood. He had an empty look in his eyes.

"We have to keep moving," Temari said quietly. She took Gaara's small hand in her own and walked up to Kankuro. He looked up to Temari for an explanation of what happened, but she just shook her head.

* * *

Temari woke up in the middle of the night. Kankuro was fast asleep beside her, but Gaara was sitting upright staring at his sister, the moonlight reflecting eerily off of his eyes.

"We aren't going home again," he said flatly, not questioning. Temari shook her head no. She crept over to her brother, picked up his blanket that was lying beside him, and draped the coarse material over his shoulders.

"You're going to catch a chill," Temari said, trying to sound like somebody's mother. Gaara looked up at the starry sky. "Don't worry," she said softly, "We'll find a new home."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this story. I'm kind of hesitant about it because there aren't any other stories like this one (that I know of) on here, so I didn't know how people would react to it. There aren't going to be any pairings in this story, so don't get your hopes up! LOL. This is a story about Temari stepping into the role of a mother for her younger brothers, so theres is going to be a lot of serious stuff going on and whatnot. There is going to be a lot of symbolism later on, so get out your analyzing glasses! (P.S. Temari's blanket is a symbol that is going to keep showing up. When you review, tell me what you think it represents!)

**

* * *

**

**Runaways**

A Temari Story

Chapter Two

At dawn the next day, Temari shook Kankuro awake and the three siblings pressed on. They didn't' pass anyone all morning and Temari couldn't help but feel thankful; people would mean trouble.

Around midday they came upon a small oasis. Kankuro threw himself down on the yellow-green sprigs of grass. Temari pulled Gaara over to the small pool of water and sat him down. She tore a strip of cloth off of her blanket, dipped it in the cool water, and began to gently rub the dried blood off of her brother's face.

"I'm hungry," Kankuro shouted, "Let's eat!"

"Shh!" Temari hissed, scanning the horizon to make sure nobody was coming. Kankuro took that as an affirmative assent and dove into his bag.

"Wait!" Temari cried, snatching the sack away from the boy. "You can't eat it all now," she lectured, "It's about five days until we reach the next village. This food has to last us until then." The blonde girl took out a kunai and used it to cut the loaf of bread into five equal pieces. She handed Kankuro the piece that had a bite in it and wrapped up the remaining parts in the waxed paper from the stall, placing it back in her little brother's sack. "Eat it sparingly," she warned the boy as he began to wolf down his share, "That's all you get for today. We'll save the fruit for later." She took her own and Gaara's loaf and did the same, handing the six year old his day's worth of food.

While the boys were occupied with their meal, Temari took the opportunity to dump the old water out of the canteens, wash them, and refill them. She retrieved the strip of cloth that she used to clean Gaara off with and tried to scrub the blood out, but the coarse grey material still sported a brown stain. Temari sighed, wrung the fabric out, and put it back in her bag.

"Let's go," she said, standing up.

The three set off again.

* * *

It had been three long days without a change. The sun beat down endlessly on the three children, causing sweat to flow down their foreheads, into their eyes, and drip off their noses. The sand met the sky in a harsh, flat line a million miles away. Temari's eyes were starting to ache from flatness. No body said anything; even Kankuro was too tired to open his mouth to complain. And they still had two more days.

Temari wondered by what miracle they had not been caught yet. They were supposedly being hunted down by the best of the best from Suna, but after the initial attack they had not crossed the path of another human being. With each step, she became more and more tense.

They heard it long before they saw it; an old cart, driven by an old man with an old team of horses. The hair was hot and motionless and sounds traveled quickly over the sands in such conditions. Temari's initial reaction to the approaching stranger was to hide her brothers, but there was nowhere to go. Temari slipped her hand into the pouch around her leg and gripped a kunai. Kankuro kept shooting sidelong glances at his sister, looking for some sort of direction or instruction, but she kept her eyes forward, and so he had to do the same. Gaara didn't look like he noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Half an hour later, the cart came rattling up beside the three siblings. The skinny man leaned over the edge of his wooden box-on-wheels and squinted his small eyes at the children.

"You kids headin' fer the village?" he asked, his voice thin and shaky. Temari stared up at him for a moment and nodded. "Well then, why don' y' kids hop in th' back an' I'll take y' with me?"

Temari's throat felt dry. She could feel Kankuro's eyes burning a hole in the side of her head. He was tired, they all were, and the water and food was getting low. If there was one thing they needed, it was a break.

But what if it was a trap? What if the old man was really a disguised jounin? Would she be playing right into her father's hands and letting Gaara fall into the snare?

Gaara looked up at his sister. He looked like he was about to collapse.

"Okay," Temari said to the old man. She picked Gaara up and put him in the back of the cart and then jumped up beside him. Kankuro hopped up beside his sister and rested his head on her shoulder and almost immediately fell asleep. Temari pulled Gaara into her lap and hugged him closer to her chest.

* * *

"Hey, girl," the old man hissed, "Wake up."

Temari's eyes fluttered open. She figured she must have fallen asleep only a few minutes after Kankuro had. Gaara was still pretending to sleep. The girl pushed herself off of the rough wooden floor of the cart and scuttled over to the edge where the man stood.

"What is it? Shouldn't we be there by now?" she asked confused.

"Now, listen here," the man leaned in closer. Temari could sense Gaara's eyes on the back of her head. "I know who y' three kids are and a purtty good idea of why y' are running. Them ninjas back in Suna, they told every'un that y' three ran away for some cock and bull reason, and that if any'un was to come acrost y' we was to take y' to the closest village and hand y' over to them."

Temari felt the blood rush out of her face. That was why they weren't being followed; they had laid traps in every settlement in the country knowing that the children would end up in one of them. They had probably hoped that the children would wear themselves out on the journey and not be able to fight back.

"Pay attention, girl, I ain't done talkin' yet," the old man continued, "Y'll take as much food an' water as y' can from my cart and get out of the country. Now, I've got a sister that lives down that way—" he pointed northwest "—that'll take y' three in for a spell. Tell 'er that Suoh sent y'."

Temari nodded her head, her eyes as wide as saucers. She crawled over to the cart's cargo and began to stuff the three bags full of food. Once she was done, she shook Kankuro and Gaara (who had gone back to "sleep") awake and told them to get up. She crawled over the edge of the cart and helped her brothers get down.

"Thank you," she said to the old man, tears almost rolling out of her eyes. She felt like an idiot; she should have known there would be jounin waiting for them. She had nearly handed Gaara to them.

The old man smiled at them and got back up on the front of the cart. "Y' three hurry up and don' dilly dally. Y' take care of them young'uns, missy."

"I will," Temari promised.

* * *

Suoh's sister's house was a day and a half away. Temari had pushed her brother's and herself to their breaking point; they had only stopped twice during the journey. When they finally reached the small hut, Temari barely had enough strength to knock on the door.

An elderly woman swung the door open with a surprised expression barely visible through the many lines on her face.

"Suoh sent us," Temari wheezed.

"Oh, goodness, y' three come on in," the old woman exclaimed, stepping aside to let the children pass, "Y' look dead on yer feet." She ushered them over to a small, scrubbed wood table and gave them all cups of fresh, cold, water and insisted on cooking something. "It's what women do in times of need," she explained as she stirred a pot of stew over an old stove.

The three siblings ate in silence as the woman, Misa, went into the bathroom and began to run a bath. They definitely needed a good scrubbing, Temari concluded, looking at her filthy brothers and her own grime-smeared skin.

Misa insisted that Temari be the first to bathe. Too tired to argue, the girl went into the bathroom and peeled off the sand-streaked and sweat-drenched clothing that was clinging to her like a second skin. Misa collected the siblings' clothes to wash them out and handed each an old and worn outfit.

"Those used to belong to my kids," Misa explained nostalgically, "Bin nearly fifty years since they've bin worn."

Temari thanked the woman and changed into the clean garments. Gaara was next in line for the bath. Temari had offered to help him, but he insisted that he was not a child and could bathe himself.

"Temari," Kankuro whispered to get his sister's attention.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Why are we running away from home?" he asked in a small voice.

The girl didn't say anything at first. She wanted to tell somebody; she felt like she had a burden on her shoulders, but she didn't want to scare her brother. But the way that Kankuro was staring at his sister, she knew he wouldn't stop until he got his answer.

"Some one is after Gaara," she whispered back to her younger brother, "But you have to promise to never tell him, no matter what."

"But if some one is after him, couldn't father stop him?" Temari didn't answer. "No!" the boy hissed, "_Father_ is trying to kill Gaara? Why?"

"I don't know," Temari answered truthfully, "But he's our little brother and we have to protect him. Promise?" She held out her pinky finger.

Without hesitation, Kankuro hooked his pinky finger around Temari's and said, "Promise."

* * *

Three days later, Temari insisted that they leave Misa, just incase the jounin were on their trail. Misa could see in Temari's eyes that it would be futile to argue with the nine year old, and so she drew a rough map on a small scroll.

"Y' follow this map," Misa said, handing it to Temari, "It'll take y' straight to Konoha. They're friendly folk there, my husband grew up in that village. Some'un'll help y' three there."

Temari thanked Misa for taking them in before setting off on what she hoped was the last leg of the journey.


	3. Chapter 3

**Runaways**

A Temari Story

Chapter Three

Temari hated the forest; the thick trees she couldn't see around, the damp air, the animals that darted out without warning. It was doing very little for her already frazzled nerves. So was Kankuro's incessant complaining, which he had resumed minutes after the siblings got out of the desert. Worst of all, they were lost.

"Let me see the map now, Temari," Kankuro whined, holding out his smudged and dirty hand, "I bet I could figure it out, because I'm a boy."

"You have already looked at it," Temari snapped. She was very tempted to whack her little brother over the head with something.

"Just let me see it!" Kankuro persisted.

"No."

"Come on, Temari!" he said as he lunged for the sheaf of paper. Temari held pulled it out of his pathway just as the boy tripped over a projecting root. He fell to the ground with a cry, landing on his right forearm.

"Kankuro!" Temari called out and swooped down beside her little brother. He rolled onto his back, his face contorted in pain. His left hand was clutching his right forearm and blood was seeping over his small fingers. Temari tried to pull his hand away, but Kankuro whimpered and tugged his arm away. Temari grabbed a hold of the boy's arm and pulled his hand away to reveal a gash in his pale flesh, a broken off stick the width of Temari's thumb lodged in the wound. Temari gingerly touched the rough, frayed end of the wood, causing Kankuro to yelp in pain. Gaara was beside his sister, hovering over his brother, staring fixedly at the dark, oozing blood spilling out of the cut.

Temari was starting to panic. She knew she had to get the switch out of Kankuro's arm, but he kept twisting and turning. And even if she could get her brother to stay still, if any fragments of wood were left behind in the flesh, it would get infected.

"Kankuro," Temari called, holding her brother's tear stained face sot that he was looking at her, "Kankuro, listen to me." Her voice was noticeably shaking. "I am going to pull it out, okay?"

"No," the boy whimpered, shaking his head.

"Gaara, hold him down," Temari told her youngest brother. Sand sprang out of nowhere and clamped around the eight-year-old's limbs, holding him fast. He began to writhe against his bonds, crying and screaming. Temari reached into her bag and pulled out her blanket which was frayed at the edge where she had ripped off a strip to clean off Gaara. She tore two additional pieced, folding one over a few times and putting it in Kankuro's mouth to give him something to bite down on. She unscrewed the cap off of her canteen so that she would be able to rise out the wound as soon as the stick was taken out.

Temari took a deep breath and sat up on her knees. She could feel her stomach twisting itself into a Celtic knot and the end of every nerve was buzzing painfully.

"On the count of three," Temari said to her brother, who was still vainly trying to free himself, "One, two—" She took another deep breath and got a firm hold on the stick "THREE!" she yelled as she pulled the switch out with one motion. Kankuro screamed in agony against the swatch of cloth in his mouth, while Gaara just watched.

Working quickly, Temari poured a liberal amount of her water over the wound, and peered closely at it afterwards. It appeared to be free of all foreign bodies, and so she wrapped the second swath of blanket tightly around the gash in her brother's arm. A splotch of blood immediately began to grow in the grey fabric.

"Let him go now," Temari said to Gaara. The sand slipped away, but Kankuro stayed on the ground, rolling onto his side, his back to his siblings, and his arm cradling his wound.

Temari fell back against a tree. She let out a relieved sigh and looked up at the patch of blue sky that was shown between the treetops. Her hands were still shaking. After a minute, Temari reached into her bag and pulled out some of the dried fruit that she had bought in the market at Suna, twelve days ago. Temari found it hard to believe; it felt like a different lifetime.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when a kunai went flying towards her head, imbedding itself in the bark just above the girl's head. Before she had any time to think, a small cylinder was thrown into the small area where the siblings were, pouring out smoke. Temari began to choke as her eyes watered.

"Gaara!" she croaked, "Kankuro! Gaara!"

She was silenced when a strong hand covered her mouth and she was lifted off the ground.

* * *

A/N: Sweatdrops Sorry about the (lack of) length. I have a writing schedule now, though, so updates will be faster! I promise does the nice guy pose despite the fact that saidauthor is female 


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